300a seal esc (eventually will get a vesc, the 75/300 is just really expensive for a first build)
custom waterproof remote
Cloud9 surffoil w/ large wing
blueplanet 6’ 97L mini sup
Battery
Had to go with an electric skateboard style flat pack because my deck is only a little over 3 inches thick. I could have chosen a different board, but in the end I wanted to keep a really thin sup profile with a stealthy look
I was originally going to have the battery in a removable waterproof box (like lift, or @Flightjunkie) that sat within another waterproof latch
Goal: redundancy and easy charging
But… given my thickness issues (and that I already have made multiple boxes too big) I am axing that idea. Now the battery will sit in a thin waterproof box within the waterproof hatch (redundancy check) but not be removable from the deck (screwed in place) for a little more inconvenient charging. I will still be able to take it out if needed, I’ll just have to go through a handful of screws and a plexiglass lid.
in order to prevent the weight of the battery from being too far forward, I’ve done split enclosures with the ESC located behind the mast. that box won’t have a hatch, just a screwed down 100% waterproof lid since it really doesn’t need to be opened often.
designed and milled an aluminum mount that fits against a flat edge on the trailing side of the mast, supported by two 3D printed cone halves. Each half is covered in two layers of glass plus will be glassed to the mast. Currently, they are just epoxied to the mast
internals based on the old faithful $25 GT2B remote I’ve used with esk8’s for 5+ years. This remote is also extremely adjustable which helps when you don’t have a VESC and need to alter your throttle response easily!
potentiometer sealed in its own section of the remote, a waterproof skate bearing and silicone providing the only blockage from water entering around the shaft… I figure some water will get in there eventually, but I’d rather kill the cheap pot than anything else in the remote. I’ve got a dozen extra laying around and will, of course, fill it with corrosion X
18650 in the handgrip
GT2B circuit board and phone wireless charging pad in the top of the remote
sealed battery and circuit board with epoxy (after dialing in the remote settings)
Plenty of good ideas in your project. I like your electric skateboard battery pack plus the space invaders look of your remote that could accommodate an extended-size screen.
Making a waterproof hatch is much easier said than done… I’ve tested it 5 times now, each time finding a wet paper towel after some time underwater.
I’m progressively getting closer, the first attempt (just spraying around the hatch with a hose) resulted in a full inch of water sitting inside
I’m also going to have to tape over the hatches before I ride because they are not waterproof whatsoever, and while I’m fine with a little leakage into my hatch (because everything within is hypothetically waterproof too) I don’t want it to pool up.
I also printed the remote and put it together. It’s painted, filled with corrosion x (in the potentiometer part), and will be sealed up before my first water test with it!
it is arranged in the same way as most electric skateboard packs. The cells are laid horizontally and stacked 2 cells high. Overall your pack will be both longer and wider, but you’ll save over an inch in terms of height!
If you don’t want to build a pack yourself, I highly recommend Chi Battery Systems who built my pack. You can message him through his website, and say you’re from the foil forum looking for a pack with a similar layout as mine.
I will take a picture of the seals tonight, I don’t have any on my phone right now.
The latches definitely leak, but I don’t have a real solution for that other than taping over the top of the latches with gorilla tape after I close it.
The seal around the outside was a rubber adhesive backed seal I got from lowes, and I was sealing the battery compartment with silicon. The silicon seal for the battery box works well, but the rubber around the edges does not… I think water is getting between the seal and the adhesive back, especially around the corners because my fiberglassing job isn’t perfect. I’m going to go crazy with the silicon for the next test, putting it behind a fresh strip of my lowes window seal and see what happens!
You might want to try to level off the lip so the seal fits flat on it. Then, you might want to look into thicker, empty core rubber strips which are highly compressible.
I currently have the one on the first pic and it works great! You can get it at homedepot if you are in the US! McMaster Carr also have a wide selection of weather stripping of different shapes and thickness!
I’ve been dealing with water leaking into my hatch also. Someone else recommended Smooth On oomoo 30. Its a 2 part silicon sold on amazon. I used it to make my hatch seal and it works really well. I poured it and brushed it on with a cheap chip brush. I was able to built it up with a few layers without adhesion issues and it bonds to itself well. For a final seal I’m using super lube. I add a little bit of super lube silicon grease around the gasket (buy the tube). It works great for sealing your plugs, etc… Hope this helps
FINALLY got it waterproofed, and wired everything up last night. I was getting power from my UBEC to the receiver, but never got any response from the the seal ESC. I can confirm it has power going to it, and I was able to access the setting on the programming card.
I might have to splice the UBEC into the PPM wire from the ESC, right now it is simply going into the power-only port on my receiver while the ESC is plugged into the main channel- I assume that should work, but I’m not 100% on it.
Also should the motor beep at all when changing settings? it has neighter beeped nor turned over through this entire setup attempt.
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